The present invention relates to toilets, and more particularly to toilet valves controlling the outflow of waste from a toilet bowl to a toilet trap.
Although flushing toilets greatly aid in the sanitary disposal of human excrement, water usage is impacted by such devices. As the need and desire to conserve water increases, there is a corresponding desire to reduce the volume of water used per average flush of a toilet.
A typical toilet includes a valve upstream of the toilet bowl, such as at the bottom of a water storage tank. When the toilet is flushed, the valve in the water tank opens, and the tank water is able to flush into the toilet bowl.
With these conventional toilets there is typically a delay between the beginning of the flushing cycle and the time that most of the crude waste has been removed from the bowl. An undesirably large amount of flushing water is required just to move the main waste out of the bowl, and a further amount is needed to provide the final rinse.
One way of reducing this problem is to provide a trap configured with an inlet valve and shaped such that when the inlet valve is opened most of the waste water will drop out of the bowl regardless of any new flush water entering. Examples of this approach include U.S. Pat. Nos. 168,613, 234,570, 279,048, 299,333, and 4,016,609.
However, such valves are necessarily placed in a blocking position relative to the outflow of waste from the bowl. Even when fully open they typically impede the flow of fluid and waste out of the bowl to some extent. Moreover, they sometimes result in clogging, maintenance or wear problems. Also, they may be expensive to produce or install, or be unreliable over prolonged usage.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,016,609 disclosed a toilet having a bendable member for controlling waste outflow from a toilet basin. The resiliency of the bendable member was critical for proper operation, which resiliency could degrade over time. Additionally, the valve was not easily installed into the toilet.
Hence, a need still exists for improved toilet trap valve assemblies, particularly those which facilitate flushing with reduced amounts of water.